Monday, February 22, 2010

THE SHERLOCK SHELF 2: Exit Sherlock Holmes, Holmes of the Movies, The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man

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EXIT SHERLOCK HOLMESby Robert Lee Hall (1977)
This one sports rave blurbs from Allen J. Hubin, P.D. James and Atlantic Monthly, so it’s probably not bad. I really can’t remember. According to the back cover, when Holmes disappears to deal for the final time with Moriarty, Dr. Watson travels “deep into Holmes’ mysterious past, until he must face that shocking discovery that his old friend has lied to him for years about who he really is and where he comes from.” Dang! That sounds pretty good. I see that Mr. Hall has since written a series of Benjamin Franklin mysteries, the latest published in 2001.

HOLMES OF THE MOVIESby David Stuart Davies (1966)
A nice overview of Sherlock flicks from the silent era to Gene Wilder's appearance as the smarter brother. Along the way there are chapters on Wm Gillette’s play, the first talkies, Arthur Wontner, Basil Rathbone, the Rathbone-Bruce series, Peter Cushing, and Holmes in the sixties, peppered with a good number of black and white photos. If the book has a flaw, it’s in giving Cushing slightly more than his due, dubbing him "The “Authentic Holmes”. But since Mr. Cushing was kind enough to write the Introduction, I suppose such flattery should be overlooked.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE ECTOPLASMIC MANby Daniel Shashower (1985)
Instead of being discovered in one of Dr. Watson’s many hidden dispatch boxes, this manuscript surfaced in the papers of Mrs. Henry Houdini. Though the good doctor had no intention of publishing the story he and Holmes shared with her husband, he was kind enough to pen a novel length manuscript and mail it to her. What a guy. Holmes and Houdini joined forces, we are told, to foil crooks out to blackmail the Prince of Wales. In the course of the adventure, Houdini reduces his body to ectoplasm, and Holmes deduces how he does it. Hey, I’d like to know that, too.

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When not blogging, I write mysteries and historical adventure. I am the proud (and mighty dang lucky) recipient of the Mystery Writers of America 2011 Robert L. Fish Award. My AHMM story "The Continental Opposite" was nominated for a Shamus award and selected for The Best American Mystery Stories 2016.